68 BOOTED EAGLE. 



distinctive characteristics of a true Eagle, as shewn, 

 among other marks, by the scales on the middle toe. 

 It is smaller than any of our European Buzzards, 

 with one of which, the Rough-legged Buzzard, ( F. 

 lagopus,) it has some similarity, and was even con- 

 founded with it by M. Temminck in the first edition 

 of the "Manual." This error was, however, corrected, 

 and a very distinct diagnosis given in the second 

 edition, which I have incorporated with the specific 

 characters at the head of this notice. 



This beautiful little Eagle, called "Booted," from the 

 thickly feathered tarsi, inhabits the eastern parts of 

 Europe and adjoining parts of Asia, from whence it 

 migrates occasionally into France and Spain. A speci- 

 men was shot at Meudon, in March, 1826; another at 

 Bar-sur-Seine, in October, 1838; and others in the 

 neighbourhood of Saumur and Bagneres-de-Bigorre, 

 St. Etienne and Bayonne; and M. Degland, on whose 

 authority we give the above localities, possesses himself 

 a specimen which was killed in the department of the 

 Hautes Pyr£n£es, on the 20th. of May, 1838. M. le 

 Comte Von der Muhle mentions in his work on the 

 "Birds of Greece," that he obtained many specimens 

 in that country, and that two individuals were captured 

 near Munich. 



The Booted Eagle is described as very courageous, 

 and attacks birds larger than itself, which alone would 

 distinguish it from any Buzzard, were any point of 

 difference now needed. It lives chiefly upon small 

 mammals, reptiles, and large insects. It builds in high 

 trees in Spain, and sometimes in the Pyrenees, laying 

 two, rarely three short eggs, of a dirty white, slightly 

 blue, and with a few very indistinct reddish spots; the 

 long diameter being nearly two inches, and the short 



